Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is proud to have established the National Rental Affordability Scheme when last in government. NRAS has successfully increased the availability of affordable rental housing to low- and moderate-income households and is helping more than 63,000 Australians secure long-term rental housing. The scheme has reduced the proportion of NRAS households in rental stress by over 22 percentage points. The government's failure to offer alternative policy or to address the funding gap has exacerbated Australia's housing affordability and homelessness crisis. A Shorten Labor government will directly address the funding gap. In December Bill Shorten announced that a Labor government will improve housing supply and provide long-term affordable housing for low- and middle-income Australians through the construction of 250,000 new affordable homes. Building on the NRAS, Labor will drive residential construction activity through a secure, long-term pipeline of investment, scale up the capacity of the community housing sector, boost employment, and meaningfully address the profound shortage of affordable housing in Australia.